12" Talon on a P

[stickershock23]

Wanted to give a huge thanks to Mark at StickerShock23.com for stepping up as a sponsor!

We greatly appreciate everyone who's coming through for us to help us with this project. Thanks again for your support!

Thanks for letting me be a little part of this AWESOME project!!

Keep it coming guys!!

 

[speedyweasel]

Don't you worry about that, Mark. This train will keep on rollin' -- to the chagrin of our peace loving neighbors.

And check this out -- Chris found the original Talon thread! The one that started it all!

https://www.rocketryforumarchive.com/showthread.php?t=35494

 

[Jolly Roger Joe]

Figured this was suited for a 4th of July update.
More to come..

Hey Chris, drink some beer and write some more. Your public awaits... :confused2:

 

[BB-ROCK]

Hey Chris, drink some beer and write some more. Your public awaits... :confused2:

yep, public awaits.... just don't let the beer do writing for you.:y:

 

[leegscott]

Ok, What is happening on the Talon. Been awhile since any progress photos. You guys are slacking. Better hurry up, you only have 11 months to get that thing done!!! Now you know why I am making this post don't you??

 

[Pantherjon]

Methinks maybe too many Fat Tires has gotten their wagon off track? :roll:

 

[ben_ullman]

Methinks maybe too many Fat Tires has gotten their wagon off track? :roll:

That makes no sense! You have to be ON TRACK to get off :roll:

Ben

 

[SpartaChris]

Fear not folks, this build thread is just trying to make you want it more by playing hard to get. It'll happen... eventually. Or it won't.

Here's what our motor casings had to say about it:

Guess we know where we stand! Anyway, stay tuned. An update will be done this weekend!

 

[SpartaChris]

So after discussing it with G.I. Bro, we decided to skip the P and go to a Q motor. Since the lathe these were made on can't accommodate such a long motor, we decided to use Broseph's favorite case bonding material of power to fuse the two casings together:

I think Joe's a little green with envy. It should be strong enough to hold the two pieces together, no?

Can you hear me now?

Just a quick test fit of the motor adapter downer tool of doom:

Looks like all is well! On to the boat tail cone!

 

[SpartaChris]

Now that the two pieces have been trimmed and molded to shape, we're ready to fuse the two halves together. First, we gave it a quick test fit using the back end of the rocket where our boat tail cone will reside:

Next, because we're not master mold makers, we had a lot of lumps that would otherwise interfere with the placement of the centering rings to go in later. To clean those out, Charlie busted out his Super Ninja Turbo High Speed Fiberglass Shredder 2000:

This made relatively short work of the bulk of the excess material needing to be cleaned out:

Unfortunately, some parts were just too much for Ninja's, so we had to go with something more powerful: The Deluxe Turbo Fiberglass Shredder 3000, limited edition. It's a grinding disk fashioned out of Chuck Norris' beard. Let's just say it made extremely short work of the stubborn material:

 

[SpartaChris]

So while the cleanup of the boat tail cone halves was going on, the lovely Head Beer Wench of the Apocalypse decided to surprise us with some home made chocolate ice cream, proving once again why she's the true love of our lives:

Man this stuff rocks!

In fact, we love her so much, we kicked in for her to get an upgrade. The Head Beer Wench of the Apocalypse will now be known as Headbeerwenchimus Prime:

 

[SpartaChris]

With our bellies full of chocolaty delightfulness, we got back to work.

Next we needed to trim off some of the excess from our boat tail cone. We knew approximately how much we needed to trim, but the problem lie in how to get a straight line around a complex shape. We tried a multitude of things, starting with a piece of 8" sonotube shimmied over the top section:

Not quite close enough. Next we tried a string chalk line:

That seemed to do the trick!

 

[SpartaChris]

G.I. Bro goes back to work trimming the excess. GO JOE!:

A quick test fit of the motor retention tube of Might!:

And a quick break as Headbeerwenchimus Prime brought out some fresh, homemade bread. Is this lady great, or what? Joe, seriously.. If something were to ever happen to you, I got dibs!

 

[SpartaChris]

So, figuring that since chalk line worked perfectly for the first half, it should work great for the second half, right?

Wrong. I'm not really sure what the problem was, but it involved a garden gnome, some pvc pipe and those ninjas from the glass shredder earlier:

But, using a bit of modern ingenuity, we were able to innovate:

We opted to try electrical tape, which worked great:

 

[SpartaChris]

Now that the halves are trimmed to shape, it's time to fuse these two halves back together. We started by first taping the seams to hold the two halves together. Next we slid our over the shoulder boat tail cone holder over the shoulder, using wax paper as insurance to keep the glass and resin from accidentally adhering to the over the shoulder boat tail cone holder. By the way, there's Charlie, looking normal:

Next, we took strips of fiberglass mat, and wet them out using the same process as before:

Working the resin until it's almost transparent:

 

[SpartaChris]

We then laid the strips along the seams:

Once the all thread is removed, we'll be laying strips over that area. We know we won't get the chemical bond, but the mechanical bond in that tiny area will be more than sufficient:

With the strips laid it place, we then set the boat tail cone outside to cure.

 

[SpartaChris]

Once the parts cured a bit, Charlie used his trusty Deluxe Turbo Fiberglass Shredder 3000 and trimmed off the excess material at the seam. This will make way for the outer strips to be laid up:

After we got a solid cure, we yanked the all thread and gave the boat tail cone another test fit:

Sure is purty!

 

[SpartaChris]

We then cut strips of glass cloth to lay along the outer seam:

Using the same methods of before, we wet out the cloth:

And laid it along the outer seam:

Once both sides were laid up, we set the mold back outside to cure:

That's all we had time for that day. Coming soon- The making of the motor!

 

[speedyweasel]

Well done, SpartaCrisp.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Beerwenchimus Prime graphic... hope she does, too! You guys have fun taking a... er... making a P today. I'll be there in spirit. op:

Who am I kidding? I won't be anywhere near you in spirit... my happy ass will be at the spa with my wife! Muahahahaha!!

 

[Jolly Roger Joe]

You guys have fun taking a... er... making a P today. I'll be there in spirit. op:

Who am I kidding? I won't be anywhere near you in spirit... my happy ass will be at the spa with my wife! Muahahahaha!!

I know you had fun, but we had a great time at TDK Propulsion making the first half of the P motor. Three grains, 6 inches in diameter and 8 inches tall. Holy crap! You should see their mixer... Arrrrg

Thanks again David.

 

[SpartaChris]

Today's update is brought to you by SEETHER. For that time in your life where you feel the need to strap on a helmet and run head first into a wall, let SEETHER guide the way:

[YOUTUBE]MTjDbTOmic8[/YOUTUBE]

 

[SpartaChris]

So we took a little break from the actual construction of the rocket to do something relatively new to most of our build team- Make the motor this bad boy's gonna fly on.

The process began with the manly men showing up at propulsion the labs at USC:

Using a straight edge and a ruler, the exact length of the casting tubes were measured and then divided by 6, or the number of grains the motor will have:

I want to take this time to give a shout out to Tim Scott, co-owner of ROL (www.rocketryonline.com) for slappin' some fools so he could make time to join us. If you haven't visited ROL yet, make sure you do. You'll find a pretty comprehensive list of tips and tricks on nearly any subject you can think of.

/plug

Joe used the factory edge of the liner to mark all the way around the casting tube so we could make sure to get as straight a cut as possible:

And takes the time to look at the liner with envy:

 

[SpartaChris]

A quick shot of the mandrels we'll be using, all greased up and ready to go:

And a quick shot of the ultimate hacksaw of destruction, carefully trimming the casting tube:

Some time was spent deburring the edges:

Who's ready for some bowling?

 

[SpartaChris]

Now that the initial prep is done, lets get to the main event and make the motor!

Let's see, checking the mixer.. Ummm.. Uh-oh, the mixer's broke! Man, ephin Charlie!

Not to fear, David was able to call in some backup:

Backup:

Whew, we cut that one close! I was definitely not looking forward to having to mix this bad boy by hand:

 

[SpartaChris]

Hey, check it out everyone, Lee managed to make it to a build session!

Giving a quick plug to Scott Rocketry:

While Joe smokes a cigar:

Lee inspects some grains from a previous casting session:

 

[SpartaChris]

Alright, so under the supervision of our buddy David, we're ready to get the ball rolling. David brings out the ingredients and starts walking us through the steps:

Looks like we're making a giant omelette:

"Hey, whatcha Makin?" "I'm makin' eggs, wanna try some?" Sure!"
(Scout joke.)

Transferring our well mixed omelette to the bigger bowl for machine mixing:

While Lee supervises:

 

[SpartaChris]

Lee instructs David on the proper way to measure out the additional ingredients:

I dunno man, Lee doesn't look happy:

Meanwhile, Joe has a flashback:

Bad Joe, no donut! Don't you know that stuff gives you gas?

 

[SpartaChris]

I dunno who the heck that guy is. He just showed up and started brushing curative on the inside of the casting tubes. Friggin' hippie needs a hair cut:

Looks like Lee is satisfied with the work so far:

Casting tubes are set to go!

 

[SpartaChris]

David looks like he'd trying to help the stuff give birth. Way to be committed David!

Joe, remembering the days when mom used to make fresh, homemade cookies attempts to lick the beater. Kids, don't try this at home:

Next was to put the mix under vacuum, using our old friend, the Mystery Machine of Doom:

 

[SpartaChris]

Ephin Charlie man, did you have to?

Looks like playdoh:

Our resident n00b packing the propellant in tight:

And with that, the first half of our motor is set aside to cure for a couple of days!

Here's a quick test burn of what the propellant will look like:

That's all for our motor build day. It was a lot of fun, and is certainly an experience anyone involved in high power rocketry should take part in.

I'll leave you with these parting words. Being a huge Packers fan, I've been asked repeatedly how I feel about Brett playing for the Vikings. Well, the nicest thing I can say about it is this:

Till next time, keep rockin.